
^ 

^'^' 

/- 



^,\/ .v^-, v/ ••;^-: %/ .--^-••. Vo^^ «>:^ 
















.V* .'^&% \/ -^g^:-. %,^* .•,;(C^ev,, %/ ;^^\ %. 
:-"°o /..;;.v';,\ /,.:^z^:\ /-^^-X ,^° .-^ 






^0 



"-^-n^ 




/% 



'm r<^ 




%c,':>' 



'<' , 






y 






,v 



V 










j^A' ^t-oJ-, 



%n WkX^movx'iXm* 



(^ 



pcurxj JU ^0X0. 



" In halls of State he stood for many years. 
Like fabled knight, his visage all aglow, 
Receiving, giving sternly, blow for blow; 

Champion of right." 



PROCEEDINGS 



SENATE 



^tatc of ^txo ViovVx^ 



ox THK DEATH OF 



Hon. henry R. LOW 



ALBANY : 

THE TROY PRESS COMPANY, PRINTERS, 

l88q. 






•01 



PROCEEDINGS 



Senate of the State of New York, 



ON THE DEATH OF 



Jlou. iicuvy 21* X.om 



IN SENATE. 

January 1, 1889. 

Mr. Yedder offered the following : 

Whereas, On the occasiou of its conveninfr to-day 
the Senate is deprived bv death of the presence of one 
of its meml)ers, the late Henry K. Low, the represent- 
ative of the Thirteenth district, who died in the city of 
New York on the first day of December last; and 

Whereas, His long and distin<^uished career, 
especially as a member of this body, calls for honor- 
able recognition by his colleagues ; be it, therefore. 

Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed by 
the President of the Senate to prepare resolutions com- 
memorative of the character and services of our late 
associate, and that Thursday, the seventeenth instant, 



j;cfil6UttUic gvocccdincja 



be designated as the day for receiving and acting upon 
the resolutions thus to be prepared and submitted for 
the consideration of the Senate. 

The President put the question whether the 
Senate would agree to said resolution, and it was 
decided in the affirmative. 

The President appointed as such committee 
Messrs. Vedder, Sloan, Erwin, McNaughton and 
Pierce. 



IN SENATE. 

January 16, 1889. 

Mr. Vedder, from the special committee ap- 
pointed to prepare resolutions in reference to the 
death of the Hon. Henry R. Low, asked that the 
time for presenting said resolutions be extended 
until Monday evening, February fourth. 

The President put the question whether the 
Senate would agree to said request, and it was 
decided in the affirmative. 



%n g^enxovianx. 



IN SENATE. 

February 4, 1889. 

Mr. Vedder, from the select committee ap- 
pointed to prepare resolutions commemorative of 
the character and services of Hon. Henry R. Low, 
late Senator, offered the following : 

Whereas, The Hon. Henry R. Low, a Senator of this 
State, and President pro tempore of this body, died in 
the city of New York, on the 1st day of December, 1888 ; 
be it, therefore. 

Resolved, That holding his memory in affectionate 
regard, we mourn his untimely death. 

Resolved, That in the office of Senator he exhibited 
the highest gifts of statesmanship, the loftiest patriotism 
and the most stainless integrity, and that in his death 
the State has lost a faithful servant, liberty an advocate 
and humanity a friend. 

Resolved, That his private life was as pure and gentle 
as his public career was noble and distinguished, and 
that we tender to his family the sympathy which flows 
from hearts which are deeply moved with a great sorrow. 

Resolved, That these resolutions be engrossed, and a 
copy thereof be presented to his children. 

Senator Sloan spoke as follows : 
Mr. President : It sometimes happens in our 
experiences that we listen to tributes to departed 



|^C0isUttixic ^H'occccUugs. 



friends so laudatory as to be manifestly over- 
wrought. Such tributes are not grateful because 
unreal. They fail to hold the mirror up to nature. 
While the omission of some defect of character 
may well be pardoned at such a time, violations 
of truth can not be. But when a career is ended 
of which it can be said that it epitomized faithful 
public service, good citizenship, loyal friendships, 
kind intercourse with neighbors, devoted head- 
ship to the family, we say, in truth, that a great 
loss has been sustained. Such, I believe, without 
coloring, was the career of our late associate. 

Only as a Senator can I speak from personal 
knowledge of Senator Low, but the testimony of 
friends, the tributes everywhere heard in the 
community where he lived, so abundantly attest 
his sym})athy witli the i)ublic welfare, as also the 
l)ossession of exemplary traits of character, that 
there is no need for me to speak in praise, except 
as I knew him in our relations as members of this 
body. It may well be left to the city of Middle- 
town to proclaim his enteri)rise and public spirit. 
I am told that there are few business organiza- 
tions, industrial in their character, originating in 
coml)ined effort in that city, with which our 
friend was not at some stage of their existence 
in greater or less degree identified. He was in 
the front always as a benefactor of his city, as he 



%n Uttcmoriaiu, 



was also in the front as an indefatigable worker 
for the district he represented in this body. So, 
too, was he an able, industrious and aggressive 
advocate of all that he believed to be advanta- 
geous to the State. Senator Low was a man whose 
evolution of subjects brought out pronounced 
convictions. His convictions were not the reflex 
of the opinions of others. They were emphat- 
ically his own, and he had the courage of his 
convictions. 

We all know of his persistence in contending 
for the adoption of measures which he espoused 
during the years of his service here. I think it 
may be said that no Senator was more watchful 
of general legislation. Apparently he was im- 
pressed with the responsibility which long 
service imposes. Therefore, his voice was never 
silent when he thought it ought to be heard. 

Senator Low was, in one respect, the most 
remarkable man I ever knew. I do not recall 
another legislator of my accjuaintance who, when 
burdened with so many responsibilities as to be 
really overburdened, was willing to take on new 
ones, as Senator Low was always ready to. 

Many times he has talked with me in com- 
mittee, and elsewhere, about the possibility of 
formulating new policies, when I knew that he 
had more work to perform than from my point 



Il^cciislatiiic ^^vocccrtiucis. 



of view it was possible to compass ; and yet he 
would be interested and eager to lend the assist- 
ance of his advocacy to any new measure, or to 
make his influence felt in opposition, as the 
opinions he entertained might dictate. 

Literally he seemed never to have enough to 
do, and yet with all of his cares, under the 
pressure of responsibilities grave and urgent, he 
was ever the courteous gentleman, lending his ear 
and counsel, as if his mind were as free as the 
air we breathe, to help in the attainment of ends 
which his judgment approved. 

In this regard he was extraordinary, if I may 
not say, indeed, that he was a unique personality. 
To the possession of this quality of even temper, 
united with determination and vigor, it is not 
too much to say, the State is indebted for some 
of its most benefincet legislation. 

Especially was Senator Low's advocacy valu- 
able in the enactment of laws to protect the 
agricultural and dairy interests of the State. I 
think I do not state the case too strongly when 
I say that the dairymen of the State of New 
York look upon the death of Senator Low as an 
irroi)arable loss. 

They had learned to lean upon him as their 
never-failing and never-hesitating champion. 
They recognize the fact that his advocacy of 



Xn MXcmovxmxx, 



their interests was always a potent influence in 
their favor. They have a conviction that without 
that advocacy their success in advancing meas- 
ures of legislation would have been less assured 
and, in all probability, less promptly realized. I 
know from expressions of its members at a late 
meeting of the State Association, what the pre- 
vailing opinion is. The members of that asso- 
ciation feel that a friend indeed has gone. They 
feel that Senator Low's death is not only a 
misfortune to them, but a misfortune to the 
district he represented, as well as to the State 
at large. These gentlemen were attached to 
him, not only by ties of gratitude for the ser- 
vice rendered them, but they were his personal 
friends, and they loved him for himself, apart 
from other considerations. 

Senator Low was indeed a lovable man ; not, 
in the common acceptation of the term, a mag- 
netic man, and yet he was a most agreeable com- 
panion. He loved the society of his friends. He 
found pleasure in elevating associations. In the 
intercourse of those who gathered about him 
he contributed intellectuality and cheer. His 
knowledge was general, practical and accurate. 
He told what he wanted to tell with cleverness 
and force, and no one possessed keener apprecia- 
tion of the refinements of humor than he. 



X*C0i6Uttiiic ^%aicccdlu96. 



Senator Low had not reached the age which 
would identify him with the gentlemen of the old 
school ; and yet, in some respects, he reflected 
that mold of manhood. His was not the tempera- 
ment however, to incline one to be placed in that 
relation, because in our interpretation, a gentle- 
man of the old school is more an observer than 
an actor in the drama of life. Senator Low was 
not the man to ever have reached a period of 
inactivity. Though he had lived to the allotted 
time of three-score years and ten, or even four- 
score years, I believe he would still have been 
found in the harness, unless restrained by dis- 
abling causes. 

But for this pervading energy of his charac- 
ter, he might in the evening of life have settled 
into the typical old-school gentleman. I say this 
because of his native refinement, his culture, his 
courtesy, his generosity; but notwithstanding the 
possession of these qualities, qualities implied by 
the soubriciuet, the activity of his nature was 
a constant contradiction of such an ideality. 
It might be said of Senator Low that while 
he was a gentleman of the old school, he was 
yet a type of Americanism which knows no 
restraint ; a combination of energy and ur- 
banity not (luite common in the civilization of 
our day. 



Ju HXcmovlum. 



Although sixty-two years of age when he 
died, no one who knew Senator Low, at the 
close of the session of the last Senate, would 
have considered him other than a man in the 
maturity of active manhood. 

When we parted company in this chamber, 
less than a year ago however — at the beginning 
of the season when the redolence of flowers and 
the songs of birds filled the air with gladness, a 
time when one would wish to live always — we 
saw, I think, that the form and features of our 
friend foretold his doom. 

I know that something seemed to tell me 
that another spring-time would find the chair of 
the absent Senator empty. And so it is. Loving 
hands have placed flowers where he sat. We 
look at these flowers, these tokens of affection, 
these emblems of mortality, and while we look 
at them we recall only pleasant recollections of 
his i^resence. 

If moistened eyes turn that way, tell me 
not that they turn in weakness. Tell me 
not that tears may be shed by women only. 
Tears may be shed by strong men when a brother 
falls, and they may be shed without confessing 
weakness, without dishonor. Senators, the death 
of one of our number comes very close to all of 
us, not only in sundering ties of brotherhood, 



J^colslatiuc gvoccctUucjs. 



which grow out of our associations here, 
but when the circle of thirty -three men 
is broken even by the loss of one, it speaks 
perforce a word we ought not to treat indif- 
ferently. We know that "it is appointed unto 
all men once to die,", and yet death in itself is so 
impenetrable a mystery that few of us care to 
dwell upon its meaning. We know that it comes 
nearer with each recurring day and hour. It is 
well that we are buoyed with hope, that we can 
contemplate death, and yet not realize in our 
own personalities how near it may be, or that in 
the light of human ken, every moment of our 
lives, it is as near to us as it is to others. True, 
we see that the flight of time is to all alike, and 
not less marked by the sun than the daily less- 
ening period of our existence is. 

Also, true it is, that these flying years bring new 
environments. Darker shadows cross our path. 
We turn away from these shadows to live in the 
fantasy of earlier days. But when we come back 
to the realities about us, a grimmer humor veils 
our eyes; speculation takes the place of fancy, 
im-.igination sinks into philosophy, and 

" As life runs on, the road grows strange 
With faces new, and near the end 
The mile-stones into head-stones change, 
'Neath every one a friend." 

14 



%n Utciuoviitni. 



Senator Pierce spoke as follows : 
Mr. President : The customary period of pub- 
lic mourning- for eminent citizens who have served 
and adorned our State and country and passed 
away while in the exercise of important official 
functions, made appropriate by the decease of our 
colleague while holding the constitutional office 
of temporary president of the Senate, is about 
expiring. The drapery that for the past month 
has lain in solemn folds over his vacant desk 
and sadly festooned the chair of the President 
of the Senate, to symbolize the shadow cast, 
not only in this chamber, but over the State, 
when the angel of death, on his tireless wings, 
paused and hovered in his endless flight and 
fixed his fatal glance on our departed colleague, 
is now to be removed. These symbols have 
been the catafalriue of Henry R. Low ; they in- 
dicate that by public authority he was lying in 
solemn state in the principal chamber of the 
Capitol assigned for legislative deliberation. The 
distinction of being leader of the Senate (not 
new to him), was readily accorded to him by us 
when he returned to it after an absence of nearly 
twenty years, ripe in experience and rich in the 
wide reputation for probity and genius and public 
usefulness, acciuired in projecting and carrying 
out enterprises, vast in their scope and grandly 



gC0i5lutlUC gVOCCC(UU05. 



beneficent in their conception and results. 
Twenty-six years ago, nineteen of which he was 
absent from the Senate, he was the acknowl- 
edged leader of the Senate and of his party, 
and chairman of the Republican State Committee. 
He thought and breathed a political atmosphere 
that was not altogether fragrant to me, but which 
gave such vigor to him, then scarcely thirty- 
seven years of age, as led his then elastic step 
by sweeping strides to the front of his party, and 
enabled him to largely contribute to the mold- 
ing of those sentiments and influences which 
x:)recipitated our late civil conflict, but seemed 
to want the energy demanded at the time for a 
more vigorous prosecution of the war. It so hap- 
pened, in the winter of 1863, soon after Horatio 
Seymour had been elected Governor of this State 
on the issue of a more vigorous prosecution of 
the war, that a judge of the Supreme Court for 
the northern district, where I was born and 
reared to manhood, invited me to accompany 
him on a visit to Albany. His political biases 
were decidedly Republican — mine were as de- 
cidedly Democratic ; but as we were equally 
patriotic in an ardent desire to put down the 
rebellion, he did not hesitate to introduce me 
to his Republican friends, among whom was a 
noted Republican partisan, who, honored and re- 



%u ptcmorlanx. 



spected, has passed into the political history of 
the State as one of its Senators and prominent 
Republican leaders, greatly persuasive in the 
councils of the party at the time. I refer to 
Senator Ben Field. After some conversation 
it was arranged that they should call on Judge 
Low, who then, as lately, was the sitting Senator 
from the Orange and Sullivan district, and I was 
invited to go with them. We found Judge Low 
in his apartments at the Delavan House, and 
very shortly he remarked that he had been pre- 
paring an address as chairman of the Republican 
State Committee to the people of the State, and 
invited us to hear it read. It was a powerful 
appeal to the patriotism of our citizens to sustain 
the war by upholding the Republican party. I 
was impressed by the strength of its incisive and 
unadorned statement of the remedies it proposed 
for the appalling disasters that had in swift suc- 
cession befallen the Union armies — our reverse at 
Stone river had just astounded the country. I will 
not speak further of the address than to say 
that it was shortly afterward promulgated as a 
party manifesto and was hailed, not only in this 
State, but in all the loyal States, as the mani- 
festo of the Republican party. It became an 
accepted model of similar addresses of the party 
everywhere ; platforms of conventions were built 



^cgisUitiuc Jvoccctliugs. 



on it, and legislation in all the loyal States, as to 
providing for the vote of the Union soldier in the 
field which its author carried through our Legis- 
lature, was stimulated, if not suggested, by it. 
There was something more than mere sugges- 
tion of remedies that could be put on the statute 
book in that document. It called for a more 
vigorous prosecution of the war by the agency 
of moral sentiment — the sword of the spirit of 
the Union cause, so to speak, such as Cromwell and 
Milton evoked in the Covenanters who fought at 
Marston Moor. It was conceived to show that 
the form of patriotism then conspicuous in the 
Lincoln and Seward Republicanism and the 
Horatio Seymour war Democracy, which aimed 
only to save the Union for itself alone, with or 
without slavery, could not give a more vigorous 
prosecution of the war ; that death to slavery as 
the ruling purpose of every Union soldier and 
statesman, could alone make Union armies vic- 
torious and save the nation. I have often mar- 
veled at the results wrought, as I firmly believe, 
by that address. It overthrew the Seward and 
Weed leadership of the Ilei)ublican party in this 
State and transferred it to Governor Fenton. 
It menaced the renomination of Lincoln at Balti- 
more in 1864. it resulted in the recoil which 
happens often in the law which compels ex- 



Ju U^Xcmoriam. 



tremes to meet. By success becoming too suc- 
cessful, it gave Horace Greeley the nomination 
and support of the Democratic party for the 
presidency in 1872. I have always regarded 
Henky R. Low as the primal author of these 
things The lines of his political life are broadly 
delineated in the address and are the logic of it. 
He was chairman of the Republican State Com- 
mittee when it was issued. He thereupon be- 
came the leader of our State Senate, which was 
then almost unanimously Republican, though 
Charles James Folger was his colleague, and 
other master-minds were there ; and that leader- 
ship was neither lost or impaired while he sat 
in the Senate. He was an oracle on all debated 
questions. His influence was considered equally 
persuasive in the Assembly and Executive cham- 
ber. No suggestion of prostitution of this enor- 
mous influence to private gain or advantage was 
ever whispered. The Weed dynasty was over- 
thrown and Fenton became Governor in 1864. 
Judge Low was his most trusted adviser. The 
Chase movement to either prevent the renomi- 
nation of Lincoln in 1864 or compel him to a 
change of policy indicated in Judge Low's ad- 
dress, was indorsed by nearly every Republican 
member of the Legislature of this State in the 
session of that vear in a formal document drawn 



IJcoisUttiuc gx*occcdiuQ6. 



and circulated by him, which was published by 
the New York Tribune, with vigorous support- 
ing editorials, in leaded type, from the master- 
pen of Horace Greeley. This document was 
widely circulated and became a potent factor in 
shaping the platform and party pledges de- 
manded from President Lincoln, and a different 
nomination by the Republican party as a condi- 
tion of his nomination by the Republican party. 
Judge Low's first period of continuous service 
in the Senate embraced three terms, covering 
the years extending from 1862 to 1868. Those 
were the most eventful years in the history of 
our State and nation, and he was during them 
all the unquestioned leader of the Senate of this 
great commonwealth. On her stalwart arm the 
republic leaned and to her the eyes of the 
nation were turned. There was no doubt of her 
patriotic impulses, no fear of her fealty. But 
there was apprehension that corruption in the ad- 
ministration of her local governments ; city and 
county would sap her generous life and weaken 
her potent arm ; that the accumulation of wealth 
and the development of resources would not 
keep pace with improvident and criminal ex- 
penditures, which at once impoverish and cor- 
rupt a commonwealth. The grandest political 
States are most exposed to these dangers. This 



Jtx Uilciuoviam. 



Judge Low appreciated more keenly than any 
man I ever met, and his views came to be well- 
known during this first period of his service in 
the Senate. He also appreciated that the point 
of greatest danger lay in local administration, 
whether in hamlet, village, city or county. He 
saw the multitude of cities in our State lifting up 
their municipal crowns in rivalry and pride, and 
among the great cities of Brooklyn and New 
York, whose vast and growing importance he 
comprehended. At that time the doctrine of 
local self-government for cities had but few ad- 
vocates, and the Legislature was relied upon to 
govern them by special enactments on every sub- 
ject affecting them. The city of New York was 
not permitted to expend a dollar for any purpose 
of municipal administration or improvement 
without an act of the Legislature specially author- 
izing it. All street railroads were authorized 
and built by special charter, without the con- 
sent of the city or its properly owners. All 
plans for rapid transit or, as it was then called, 
for the relief of Broadway, were discussed and 
disposed of in the Legislature. It is easy to 
see that party leadership in the Legislature, 
under these conditions and in those times called 
upon the dominant party, as the responsible 
authority, for its ablest and worthiest friend, 



j:CCji6UltV\JC ^^VOCCCtUU0S. 



and it was abundantly supplied in Judge Low, 
in whose intelligence, talents, industry, tact, ur- 
banity, patience, readiness in debate, practical 
business intuitions, local training, judicial expe- 
rience, and, above all, his acknowledged integrity, 
formed a combination of qualities that com- 
mended him to the confidence, not only of the 
Senate, that he wielded in unchecked mastery, 
but the people of the State whom he delighted 
to serve — a confidence that continued and 
strengthened to the end of the first period 
of his senatorial service. The second period of 
his service in the Senate began after an interval 
of nineteen years, commencing in 1884, with the 
terms of nearly a majority of the present Senate, 
and ended a few days prior to the opening of 
our present session, while we were fondly 
hoping that the disease that pursued him to his 
grave would spare him to us for counsel and 
guidance out of his ripe experience and judg- 
ment, and for his genial and instructive com- 
panionship. No adeciuate estimate can be made 
of the usefulness, worth and ])0wers of this re- 
markable man, unless the work he accomplished 
during the nineteen years that elapsed between 
his withdrawal from the Senate and his return 
to it be reckoned at value. I contem])late it now, 
since his spirit has ascended to the stars, as one 



%n ^cmoximn* 



might think of an effulgent orb that has made 
its flight through space on the circuit of its as- 
signed movement, and, having accomplished the 
grand purpose that set it in motion during the 
time fixed for its periodicity, falls back to 
the center from which it sprung and to which 
it brings brighter dyes of light and more genial 
rays of heat gathered from the starry fields it 
has traversed. Contemplated from a practical 
standpoint, we, who are proud of Judge Low and 
his work, may ask with confidence, what was 
this work he did ? Why, he went forth into the 
fields, found one blade of grass and conjured so 
that two grew there ; one stalk of grain and ten 
others came ; a back lot, and it became a garden ; 
a tumble-down farm-house, and it was trans- 
formed into a mansion ; a deserted village, and 
it was peopled with prosperous denizens ; an 
ignorant rustic, and self-worthiness set his soul 
aglow with all the fires of manly pride and am- 
bition ; forests, and they gave place to fields of 
grain ; streams lulling to the enchantment of echo 
and solitude, and awoke them to the music of 
machinery ; cattle and other animals domesti- 
cated to the use of man, but worthless as gold 
hidden in a napkin, and they gave profit beyond 
the exactions of usury. This is the character of 
the work he was engaged in during those nine- 



^C0islutiuc ^^voccctUngs. 



teen years. He did it by railroad building. Not 
as a contractor, who merely pursues the busi- 
ness for gain ; not as a projector, who contrives 
a dazzling scheme for the profit of his financial 
manipulation, but for the intrinsic use and value 
of the roads themselves to mankind. He gloried 
in the fruits of that species of enterprise. He 
believed, with Lord Macaulay that " of all of the 
inventions, the alphabet and the printing press 
alone excepted, those inventions which bridge dis- 
tance have done the most for the civilization of 
our species. Every improvement of the means of 
locomotion benefits man morally and intellectu- 
ally, as well as materially." Inspired with this 
motive, he was the immediate instrumentality of 
building of over one thousand miles of railway 
and these he built expressly to develop the 
regions through which they projected, and which, 
when developed, would yield the richest harvest 
of benefits to the public. He saw that the Cen- 
tral and Erie railways lay sixty to one hundred 
miles apart, the former trending on the northern, 
and the latter on the southern, boundaries of our 
kState, and between them there is a fertile and de- 
sirable section without means of communication 
with the other portions of the State. From New 
York to Lake Ontario he projected the Midland 
railroad and built it. It is now known by another 



%n Udcmovianx. 



name and proved a disastrous business adventure 
to him. But it has more than accomplished the 
most sanguine anticipations expected from it. 
Its metals now form the important connecting 
link with Vancouver's island, on the coast of the 
Pacific, with Manhattan island, in the harbor of 
New York. This work done, he projected a 
trunk line of road from Toledo to St. Louis and 
chiefly built it. That, too, bears another name 
than its creator gave it, but it forms now a 
necessary link in the railway system that con- 
nects Halifax with New Orleans. Many other 
railroads were projected and brought to comple- 
tion by his indomitable energy and unwearied 
patience. A distinguishing feature of his rail- 
road enterprises was the single purpose of de- 
veloping the resources of the regions through 
which they were constructed, and that the money 
for their construction was largely supplied by 
local subscriptions obtained on his personal solic- 
itation. It is bewildering to think of his enor- 
mous and varied labors and of the discouragements 
he must have encountered ; but the roads were 
built and he entered upon the second period of 
his senatorial service. He returned to public life 
as he had nineteen years previously withdrawn 
from it, with an experience and reputation, and 
was at once accorded the respect and confi- 



^^CQisUttiuc gvocccdings. 



dence of his colleagues and the people of the 
State, and with his great abilities not only un- 
impaired but enriched with vast and varied infor- 
mation derived from acquaintance, by personal 
experience and observation, with every pursuit 
and interest that, engages or concerns society. 
It may be safely said that no Senator ever sat 
in the Senate who was more adequately equipped 
for the discharge of the duties of the office. 
His business enterprises had brought him into 
contact with the agricultural, laboring, financial, 
manufacturing and commercial interests of this 
and many other States, and with the needs of 
all localities. This was at once recognized and 
though he was not accorded the nominal leader- 
ship of the Senate during his first term by his 
party, yet he exerted a commanding influence in 
its deliberations on all important questions. I 
will not specify the great measures he advocated 
or op])Osed — many of them are pending in some 
form or another, and there may arise a differ- 
ence of views respecting them at this session, 
among ourselves, and it would therefore be in- 
delicate to refer to his position on them ; but it 
is entirely proper to say that in him our agricul- 
tural interests have lost a chami)ion and friend 
who defended them with a vigilance, intelligence 
and power difficult to supply. The question of 



|u i^tcmovlam. 



city transit for our great metropolis has sore 
need of his guiding hand. Corruption in the ad- 
ministration of municipal government may rejoice 
at the loss of an unrelenting and dangerous foe. 
Monopolies that oppress and extort from the 
people, too, may rejoice, not that he was a chronic 
mouser for corruption as a suspicious pessimist 
who believes that villany is ever lurking in posi- 
tions of responsibility and power. That was not 
the character of his noble mind and heart. He 
was an optimist, a believer in progress, a wel- 
comer of all who brought to his notice plans for 
the comfort, convenience and moral, material and 
mental elevation of his fellowmen. His choice 
would be to assuage a sorrow or promote a 
measure of progress rather than to cast stones 
at those who err. He believed that government 
was established to advance society rather than 
to frame Draconian codes of punishment or the 
contrivances of a detective office. All those who 
have plans of public beneficence and private 
charity and progressive ideas, which need the 
vote and advocacy of a legislator greatly in sym- 
pathy with them in whatever form or by whom- 
soever presented, have lost in him their foremost 
champion, counselor and friend. And, Mr. Presi- 
dent and fellow- senators, all of us share in the 
universal bereavement the loss of this great, 



Xcoislittluc gvoccctUuQS. 



good, useful, wise and gentle colleague, has 
brought upon the Senate and the people of this 
State. 

Senator Walkek spoke as follows : 

Mr. Peesident : With profound sorrow and 
with true sincerity, I join in paying the last 
official tribute of respect and friendship to the 
memory of our friend and colleague, Henry R. 
Low. In paying this tribute, I have no desire to 
cover the dead with unmerited eulogy, and 
would not pronounce about a man so sincere as 
he, a word of praise in which there is the least 
coloring of insincerity. During the eleven years 
of which he was a member of this body, I have 
known him but a little more than three. In 
these three years of legislative life, associating 
with him from day to day, and workijig with 
him in the committee room, I have been enabled 
to form, what I believe to be a just estimate of 
his character and worth. 

And now, as I turn my attention to this life 
so lately ended here and begun above, the words 
that involuntarily spring to my mind are those 
of Cardinal Wolsey in his advice to Cromwell — 
" Be just and fear not ; let all the ends thou 
aim'st at be thy country's, thy God's, and 
truth's ; then if thou fall'st, 0, Cromwell, thou 



%n IJtXcmovUiiu. 



fall'st a blessed martyr." If we are to judge by 
results, no more fitting or appropriate words 
could our friend have taken as the motto and 
inspiration of his life. The principles of justice 
and courage, though not paradoxical, are not often 
as happily blended in the same individual. In this 
respect his life was an exception to the general 
rule — quiet and unostentatious in manner, always 
courteous in bearing and respectful of the opinions 
of others — he at the same time had clear and well- 
defined opinions of his own, and his convictions 
often blazed forth in such a manner as to command 
the respect and admiration of even his opponents. 
As a legislator he was remarkably intelli- 
gent, tireless in industry, and generously just, 
always laboring to promote that legislation which 
would conduce to the prosperity of the State at 
large, and the peace, comfort and well-being of 
all classes and conditions of men. Without 
speaking disparagingly, by way of contrast, of 
the motives or ability of other members of our 
honorable body, I think I may say, without fear 
of contradiction, that he was preeminently the 
friend of the agriculturists and farmers of the 
State. It was this trait, as I observed it in his 
character, which first called forth my respect 
and admiration. When we consider the large 
number of this class scattered throughout the 



gcgislutlvic ^H*occctltngs. 



length and breadth of our State, their general in- 
telligence, their diversified interests, the modesty 
of their demands, and the want of organization 
through which their influence is felt, when we 
consider all this, it is an honor worthy the highest 
ambition to be regarded by them as their ac- 
knowledged leader, champion and friend. 

"In halls of State he stood for many years, 
Like fabled knight, his visage all aglow, 
Receiving, giving sternly, blow for blow ; 
Champion of right." 

As a faithful, industrious and painstaking leg- 
islator. Senator Low was an example well worthy 
of our imitation. During a part of the last 
session while he was with us, whether walking 
quietly about the Senate chamber, or sitting in 
his seat, wo have observed the frail hold which 
he appeared to have upon life, and feared that 
in addition to the burden of years, he was 
bearing the heavier burden of disease. In all 
this he was faithful in the discharge of all his 
duties, and had a pleasant smile and a kind 
word for all who in anyway were associated 
with him. 

As a gentleman and man of business he was 
honored and respected wherever he was known. 
For truth, integrity and honor marked all his 
dealings. In this the Senate of the State of New 



Su ptcmoxiam. 



York he was the recipient of the highest honor 
it is in our power to bestow, that of President 
pro tempore. In his home, where he was identified 
with so many business enterprises and projects 
that tend to the growth and prosperity of his 
city, he was alike the kind friend and the dis- 
tinguished citizen, and when the last day came, 
and the places there of responsibility and trust, 
which had known him so long were to know 
him no more forever, as an evidence of the high 
regard in which he was held, all places of busi- 
ness were closed as he was carried to the 
church, where the old and the young, the rich 
and the poor assembled to pay their last tribute 
of respect, before he was laid away in his last 
resting-place. 

His life, which was gentle and patient, full of 
work and crowned wdth success, is ended and 
he has gone to his reward. 

The year 1888, so lately closed, has been an 
eventful one m the annals of our State and 
nation. Many of the noblest and best have fallen 
like the leaves of autumn to the earth, and by 
their influence, example and achievements, enrich 
it and make it better for coming generations. A 
remnant of life, be it long or short, still remains 
to each of us. It may not be possible for us to 
move in the exalted orbits of many of those who 



Scgiislutiuc gvoccctUu06. 



have preceded us, or even to reflect the luster of 
their brilliant achievements, but it is possible for 
each of us to move grandly true in his own 
orbit ; to be the conscious possessor of a noble 
nature, and by diligent adherence to principle 
and duty be numbered among those who are 
faithful in that which is least. 

Mr. President, as we are assembled at this 
time in respectful recognition of the worth and 
services of our departed colleague, I desire to 
add, to the eloquent and befitting testimonials 
that are here presented, this simple but sincere 
tribute to the memory of my friend. 

Senator Langbein spoke as follows : 
Mr. Peesident : I arise from my chair with 
melancholy pleasure to give my humble tribute 
to the memory of our departed statesman. 

He was an able politician. I do not mean 
he was a politician in the ordinary acceptation 
of that word, but in its higher and true mean- 
ing. What is politics ? It is the science of 
government. By science is meant a system of 
a branch of knowledge comprehending its 
doctrine, reason and theory. What is govern- 
ment? It is the exercise of authority, or 
direction, and restraint exercised over the 
actions of men. Science of government sig- 



Ju IP^cmoviitm. 



nifies that form of fundamental rules by 
which a nation or State is governed, or by 
which the members of a body politic are to 
regulate their social actions. It means the 
administration of public affairs according to es- 
tablished constitutions, laws and usages. In 
this sense the deceased Senator was an able 
politician. 

He was a statesman, for he was a man versed 
in the arts of government ; especially was he a 
man eminent for political abilities. 

Besides all this, he was a very experienced 
legislator. He served as a Senator in the Senate 
of this State during our late civil war, in the 
years 1862, 1863, 1865, 1866 and 1867. From the 
year 1867 to the year 1884 he was not a Senator, 
but in the year 1884 he reappeared in the 
Senate Chamber of our State, representing 
the Thirteenth Senate District until the day of 
his death. 

He was a fearless investigator. I remember 
the time, now about three years ago, in 
the year 1886, when, as chairman of the Senate 
Railroad Committee, he was engaged in the 
city of New York investigating the Broadway 
Railway scandal. He was tireless and fear- 
less in that investigation, and it was mainly 
due to him, assisted by the invaluable aid of 



gcgistutiuc ^roccctlingB* 



that learned and accomplished departed Repub- 
lican statesman, Roscoe Conkling, that one of 
the most stupendous frauds of our age was 
unearthed, and many of the perpetrators were 
punished. 

During all these years of his political career 
he was free from even a taint of suspicion of 
collusion or corruption. 

In the last year of his life he must have 
suffered greatly. Several times I have seen his 
sad face, as he sat in his chair, with his head 
bowed down, pained with physical disability, 
and anxious about the welfare of our State, 
which he loved so well. 

He was true to the people ; he was true 
to his party. 

It is by no means a fact that death is the 
worst of all evils ; when it comes it is an 
alleviation to mortals who are worn out with 
sufferings. 

We may say of our deceased friend : 

" Though old, he still retain'd 
His manly sense and energy of mind. 
Virtuovis and wise he was, but not severe ; 
He still remembered that he once was young : 
His easy presence check'd no decent joy. 
Him even the dissolute admir'd ; for he 
A graceful looseness when he pleased put on, 
And laughing could instruct." 



%n U^cmoviam. 



He was kindness itself. A more genial, kindly- 
nature for an old gentleman I never knew, and 
it was as unostentatious as it was kind. Who- 
ever knew him, he must be long remem- 
bered by 

" That best portion of a good man's life, 
His little nameless, unrecorded acts 
Of kindness and of love." 

Senator Coggeshall spoke as follows : 

Mr. President : It was my privilege to enjoy 
the acquaintance and friendship of Senator Low. 
I admired him living and mourn him dead. With 
chastened heart, and tender, reverent memory, 
I offer my humble tribute to his greatness and 
worth. 

We turn instinctively to-day to the vacant 
seat he occupied; we recall the benevolent face, 
the kind manner, the uniform courtesy, which 
were always his. We can not realize that this 
familiar presence is forever gone from our 
midst; that we may never again meet and greet 
him. 

But the unoccupied chair, the unanswered roll- 
(!all, his continued absence, confirms the sad 
intelligence that he is dead. He has gone to a 
rich and ripe reward, where loftiness of soul 
and honesty of intention are most fully 
appreciated. 



|;cfji6latiuc ^H'occctUucjs. 



His was an accomplished life. A life devoted 
to usefulness, rewarded by success and crowned 
with honor. We may grieve at his "taking off," 
but we are not permitted to complain. To com- 
plain at the close of such a life is to complain 
that the ripened fruit drops from the overloaded 
bough, that the golden harvest bends to the sickle, 
that the purple twilight succeeds the perfect day. 
For such a life Eloquence shall lift her impassioned 
voice and Poetry shall sing her sweetest lays. 

For such a man praise, honor, imitation; but 
not tears! Tears for him who has failed; tears 
for him who, wearied with the march of life, 
"by the wayside fell and perished;" not for 
him who finished the journey. 

We lament, therefore, in no complaining spirit 
for Henry R. Low. With our regret that he 
has died is mingled our thankfulness that he 
has lived. The city in which he dwelt so long, 
and in whose prosperity and development he was 
so deeply interested, the district and the State 
that he served so faithfully and so well, may 
appropriately inscribe his name on the roll of 
their honored dead. 

The Senate, which he informed with wise 
counsels, which he adorned with dignity of man- 
ner and purity of life, bears equal testimony to 
his abilities and to his integrity. 



%n IBcmoviam, 



We honor his memory. We appreciate his 
services. We deplore our loss. 

Of him it may truthfully be said: "They who 
knew him best loved him most." 

He had a genial, sunny disposition; a warm, 
sympathetic heart; and "he wore the radiance 
of his soul in his face." In social life he was 
always the same open-handed, large-hearted, gen- 
erous, pleasant friend; treating all who came 
within the circle of his influence, rich or poor, 
exalted or lowly, with the same rare, exquisite 
courtesy. Contact with the world, its jostlings 
and collisions, had no effect to mar the sim- 
plicity of his character or cool the warmth of 
his heart. That retained a freshness almost 
boyish. Though advanced years and feebleness 
of health invited him to repose, though he had 
climbed the rugged pathway of life far up the 
Alpine heights, so that the glistening peak was 
near at hand and winter's snow all around him, 
he looked down upon the valleys below, glow- 
ing with tropical gorgeousness, and sympathized 
with the joyousness of earth's youth, the laugh- 
ter of children, the music of birds, the joy and 
hope and universal gladness, without envy 
or sigh that he could not descend, but must 
hold on his way until the bleak summit was 
reached. 



|;ccjl5latiuc ^H^occctUnos. 



He could well have claimed that he had done his 
full share of public duty, but the habits of a life of 
active usefulness would not permit him to do this. 

From the early morning of life, all through 
its meridian and afternoon, he had been a 
faithful worker. Industry and energy, hope- 
fulness and enthusiasm, were his essential 
characteristics. 

Though naturally frail in body he was vigorous 
and persistent in both physical and mental 
action, and his life and achievements attest the 
possibilities and opportunities which cluster 
about American citizenship. 

He was an earnest and successful student of 
books, of men and affairs. 

He developed a fair fortune for himself, and 
he gave most liberally of his possessions, his 
strength, his abilities and his time to the improve- 
ment of his fellow- men, to the growth and 
prosperity of the community, and to the stability 
and perpetuity of the State. 

Having acquired a fortune, he suffered, as many 
do in these changing times, a loss of his estate. 
But he was undaunted in the face of disastrous 
failure; and with that cheerful courage which 
characterized him he launched into new enter- 
prises and speedily regained the financial 
resources for usefulness which had been swept 



Itj |5ttcmoviitm. 



away. In the hour of failure he was neither 
dismayed nor cast down, and in the hour 
of financial success he exhibited no unreason- 
able pride. His desire to acquire wealth was 
coupled with a still stronger desire to use his 
acquisitions for the benefit of those around 
him. 

Senator Low was not only a kind friend and 
an enterprising, public- spirited citizen, but he 
was also an able representative. 

Called repeatedly to positions of public trust 
and responsibility, he faithfully discharged every 
known obligation. 

His legislative career was marked by the most 
conscientious discharge of duty, by the most 
patient attention to every detail of legislation, 
and by the advocacy of laws for the promotion 
and protection of the great agricultural interests 
of the State. He was an earnest, faithful, 
devoted champion of the people's rights. The 
sincerity of his devotion to duty was the charm 
of his success. He was prudent, sagacious, 
laborious, wise. He was a brave, cautious, vigi- 
lant pilot, never departing from his chart or 
neglecting his compass. 

He was a sentinel who never left the post of 
duty. His positions were thoughtfully taken, 
securely fortified and persistently defended. 



I^ccilslatluc J^voccctUncjs. 



What he said he considered well, and he had 
that rare wisdom which is born of steady judg- 
ment, mature experience, intelligent conscience 
and generous impulse. There was with him 
always a wise and a considerate propriety of 
conduct, a love of truth, an unaffected modesty, 
a benevolent and kindly charity, which was 
both a principle and rule of his life. 

Earnest in the discharge of his duties he was 
never obtrusive, never presumptuous nor impul- 
sive, and he never said a word calculated to 
inflict a wound or injure the feelings of the 
most sensitive. 

Uncomplainingly he bore the burden of disease. 
The condition of physical health in which he 
performed his duties here saddened us all; yet 
complaint never escaped his lips, and he would 
force his weak body to its work with a vigor 
and courage that it is not extravagant to call 
heroic. 

As I think of him thus resolutely and cheer- 
fully struggling against the infirmities with which 
he contended, as I remember his simple, unosten- 
tatious life, the words of the i)oet seem as 
though dedicated to him, and as if expressive 
of his thoughts had he but uttered them: 

" I am weary of my burden 
And fain would rest." 

40 



Jn Htctuoviitm. 



Every leaf upon life's shore lines 

Is a gem ; 
Not a withered one is drooping, 
While the hand of love is looping 
And into garlands grouping 

All of them. 

Not a storm cloud gathers 

On the air ; 
Only summer clouds are drifting, 
And the summer breezes sifting, 
And sweetest perfumes lifting 

From gardens fair. 

Only music soft and melting 

Soothes the soul ; 
And its billows mild and wooing, 
With a gentle hand undoing 
All the cares that were bestrewing 

Each earthly goal. 

I will take my burden for a pillow 

And lie down to rest ; 
God's love shall dwell beside me. 
And no clouds shall ever hide me 
From the loving ones that guide me 

To the portals of the blest. 

The duties of the dead Senator are 
ended ; with him the great account is closed. 
Even this solemn hour, with his name on 
every lip, is nothing to him. His silent, inani- 
mate form is alike indifferent to censure or to 
praise. 



^ccjisUxtiuc gvoccctUuciis. 



But to us, the livin*;-, this occasion is freighted 
with interest and admonition. 

Treasuring in our hearts his memory, ex- 
emplifying in our lives his virtues, may we 
remember, 

"As each goes up from the field of earth, 
Bearing the treasures of life, 
God looks for some gathered grain of good, 
From the ripe harvest that shining stood 
But waiting the reaper's knife. 

"Then labor well, that in death you go 

Not only with blossoms sweet; 
Not bent with doubt and burdened with fears 
And dead, dry husks of the wasted years, 

But laden with golden wheat." 

Senator McNaughton spoke as follows : 

Mr. Pkesident : The fact that my personal 
acquaintance with the deceased Senator — at his 
death President pro tempore of the Senate — began 
less than one year before his death, will justify 
me in not indulging in extended remarks on his 
life, character and public services, certainly, in not 
attempting a formal eulogy. Yet for many years 
I knew much of the character and value of the 
services rendered his constituency and the State 
by Senator Low ; heard him spoken of as a ripe 
scholar, a man of affairs, forcible and potent 
in deliberations touching the political questions 



%n U^cnvovlant. 



put in issue by his party, an upright judge, a dis- 
tinguished and influential member of the Legis- 
lature, and that his name, by his party friends, 
was frequently mentioned in connection with the 
highest office in the gift of the people of this 
State. 

When, at the beginning of the previous 
session of this Senate, it was my privilege to 
meet him personally, I found that not a word 
too much had been said in his praise ; that he 
possessed in a marked degree those traits of 
mind and character which always win and com- 
mand respect and admiration. He was a stead- 
fast friend ; his heart beat for humanity regardless 
of station or race, whether clothed in rags or 
in silken vesture. He was the earnest, true, un- 
yielding friend of the wage-earner ; his voice, 
his influence were ever potent in behalf of those 
who earn their bread by the sweat of their brow. 
In this chamber he strove not for the ideal, but 
for legislation that would prove a substantial ad- 
vantage and of practical value and utility. He be- 
lieved in the dignity, the usefulness of mechan- 
ical and agricultural pursuits, and that agriculture 
was the foundation of the wealth of a nation, the 
basis of enduring prosperity to the people. 

While Judge Low was a strong, zealous, but 
not bitter partisan, yielding no point of advantage 



|;c0i6lutiuc ^\*occc(liuo6. 



to his own party, for a political opponent, by 
reason of personal friendship or business, or 
social relations — he was honorable to his poli- 
tical adversaries, his contention for his party 
was always on principle — he availed himself 
of no trick, device or subterfuge, or an 
unmanly advantage. It has, therefore, been well, 
appropriately and truly said, his death is a public 
loss ; one that will be felt and deplored by the 
citizens of our State. In the pathetic words of 
another, "his death is a recent sorrow; his 
image still lives in eyes that weep for him." 

The time of his death, with reference to the 
season of the year, his mental condition, public 
position and achievements, is suggestive. He had 
passed the hopes of spring, the promises and 
pledges of summer, had heard the chant of the har- 
vesters bringing their sheaves with them ; had seen 
the grapes purpling and rich on the vine, and the 
ripened fruit bending the boughs ; all this he had 
looked upon with kindly and gladdened eyes, and 
winter had not locked the streams nor made 
barren and bleak the face of nature, when he 
passed away. So his life. The promise of his 
youth had been fulfilled, he had borne his share, 
aye, more than his share of toil and struggle in 
the summer heat of life's battle, his well- 
directed efforts had yielded fruit and good, 



Jti l^cmoviam. 



proved a blessing and an aid to humanity, notably 
to the poor, the struggling and the down-trodden, 
and before the chill blasts of regret or disappoint- 
ment had come, or biting winds of adversity had 
touched or chilled him, before malice or envy 
had endeavored to harm, in the full vigor of a ripe 
and cultured intellect, in the possession of every 
faculty, " he has gone over to the majority ; has 
joined the famous nations of the dead," quietly, 
peacefully, gently, calmly— "death seeming rather 
to have been given to him than life taken 
away." Not a word said in praise of his char- 
acter, his integrity, his fidelity to truth and jus- 
tice, by the orator or the press but was well- 
merited ; no eulogy can exaggerate his worth, his 
struggles to enforce what he deemed the right, 
and his private life was as pure and spotless as 
the snow which lies on his grave to-night. The 
good he accomplished, is the "eloquent oration of 
this hour." Perhaps I ought not to have occupied 
any time on this occasion when so many Senators 
around this circle, from long and intimate ac- 
quaintance with Senator Low, are so well 
eciuipped to speak of him, but I should have 
done injustice to the promptings of my heart, if 
I had not risen in my place and uttered these 
words, testifying the love, the regard and respect 
which I entertained for our deceased friend. 



^coisUttuic groccc(Uu06. 



Senator Arnold spoke follows : 

Mr. President: I did not know Senator Low as 
long or as well as many Senators who have already 
spoken so elociuently and truthfully in his honor, 
but I knew him long enough and well enough to 
have recognized and admired in him many great 
and gracious qualities wiht which he was so gener- 
ously endowed. In many respects Senator Low 
always appeared to me to be a great man. In no 
respect did he ever appear to be an ordinary 
man. He had all the characteristics more or less 
developed, which men attribute to those who are 
called the great of the earth. He had industry, 
upon which greatness in these days only is built. 
He had thoughtfulness. He was full of that in- 
tellectual diirestion out of which temperate and 
far-seeing statesmanship grows. He was brave ; 
he was honest ; he was generous and kindly dis- 
posed, and forgiving to his enemies, and above 
all, Mr. President, he seemed to be gifted with 
that remarkable (|uality which all great men 
possess — the (luulity of faith — not that which 
is said to stir the hills on their bases, but that 
which is akin to it, faith in the dignity and the 
fidelity, and the truthfulness of his kind. In a 
word, he appeared always to be the most credu- 
lous of men. Whoever had his confidence had it 
all ; and this gift, shining out as it did among his 



Jn IJitmorium. 



great talents, seemed to be one of the most 
charming qualities of this remarkable man. He 
was an old man ; or at least he was approach- 
ing rapidly that period which, by common con- 
sent, is fixed as the limit of human life. He 
had seen illustrated many times in his own expe- 
rience the truth of the homely line — 

"False are the men of high degree." 

He knew how fickle and changeable public 
sentiment is, even in the best informed com- 
munities. And yet this man, with faith sublime, 
would trust in the honor and fidelity of human 
nature, and he trusted it because he lived in and 
breathed that atmosphere. 

There was another charming quality which 
Senator Low seemed to possess to a remark- 
able degree, and that was, he always seemed to 
be a young man. He had a body tortured by 
pain and tried by disease. He had seen mis- 
fortunes ; he was, indeed, like one of old, "ac- 
quainted with grief ; " and yet time had not 
embittered his temper nor had sorrow soured his 
disposition. He seemed to have caught in early 
youth of the color of the morning "incense 
breathing morn," and to have brought him the 
graces of early life, emblems of beauty and 
hope which adorn early manhood, and he seemed 
to have set them on the declining slope of old 



^^coisUttiuc JroccctUngs. 



aiie that they might light his pathway to the 
tomb. 

Mr. President, if there is any test, I do not 
know of any that is more accurate than this, by 
which we may judge of the success of any man's 
life ; it is, how much of the purity, the sim- 
plicity, the tenderness and generosity of early 
youth, he brings with him into old age. He who 
succeeds in this, as did Senator Low, has indeed 
discovered what that adventurous Spaniard 
searched for in vain, the fountain of perpetual 
youth. 

I must criticize, Mr. President, one word used 
by one Senator in these charming services ; it is 
the word "late" as applied to our departed 
friend. My faith teaches me that the friendship 
that he inspired is quick with life eternal. That 
when the stars above us grow pale with age, "and 
are to dumb forge tfulness a prey," the thought 
that binds my friend and me, will still shine in 
the firmament of God's beatitudes forever. 

Mr. President, whoever has thoughtfully ob- 
served these services will have noticed a golden 
thread running through every discourse. The 
Senator from the twenty -first (Sloan) put his 
own just and accurate estimate upon the char- 
acter of our distinguished friend ; but he spoke 
too of his firm and steadfast friendship ; and the 



In ptcmovlam. 



Senator from the Second (Pierce) so tenderly — 
true to his nature — set forth his charming quali- 
ties, his abilities and his patriotic fidelity ; and 
yet to his pure, firm and enduring friendship he 
gave the highest meed of praise ; and so it went 
through every speech. Friendship is the golden 
thread, it seems, on which we all unite and 
which joins us to the man departed. 

I am reminded by this, Mr. President, of a 
fable designed to illustrate the eternity and 
nobility of friendship. The noblest sentiment 
and the purest that grows out of human ac- 
quaintance is friendship. Like a plant of noble 
origin it grows only to perfection in noble and 
generous natures; it is constant in every vicissi- 
tude of fortune, and, as we see so happily illus- 
trated here, it survives the shock of that fatal 
hour when we bid adieu to earth. The fable 
ran this way : It was the story of five friends 
who took a journey together, a long and peril- 
ous journey into a distant and unknown land. 
Each was gifted with tastes and qualities pe- 
culiar to himself, and yet they pursued every 
enterprise ; they endured every privation ; they 
enjoyed every success as men of one mind ; and 
in the very hour of danger and in the forefront 
of battle the noblest and the bravest of them 
all came to his journey's end ; and they buried 



Secjislatixic ^xoccttMnQS. 



him there in the wilderness. As his friends sat 
around at night, as was the custom of their 
country, speaking of his great and noble nature, 
each attributed to him different qualities — quali- 
ties predominant in the nature of each, as the 
taste of each was different from the others. Yet 
they all agreed on one thing, that he was the 
purest and most faithful of friends. That in that 
great household he was the noblest and eldest- 
born. There was thus one thing upon which 
they could all unite, and standing around his 
grave, as we do here to-night, moved by a 
common impulse, they uttered this sentiment : 

" Long live friendship ; may the spot be ever green 
where it commenced, 
And the place ever bloom where it grew, 
And when all its bloom is over 
And its leaves are withered and fallen 
May friendship still continue." 

In a certain sense, we stand around the grave 
of this distinguished man to-night. His life and 
his death have lessons of instruction and wisdom 
for us all. There is not in the material universe 
of God, the humblest living thing that does not 
teach how vain that human life must be whose 
ambition ends with this existence. Senator Low 
died full of honors, and yet he was not satisfied ; 
he was a disappointed man. In the last year of 



%xi ptcmorUxm. 



his life ambition ruled every hour. Never did 
the phantom of hope lure him on and encouraf;;e 
his tottering footsteps to still higher places upon 
the earth more than in that last year ; and so 
it continued until "life's thread, worn fine as 
web of gossamer, at last gave way, and he to 
the elements resigned the principles of life they 
lent him." 

If it were given to the dead to contemplate 
and if we were permitted to hear from that dis- 
tant shore the old familiar voice, in tones of 
tender admonition, how impressive would its 
lessons be to every ambitious man around this 
circle. And yet the life and death of our friend 
teaches us as though one rose from the dead : 
" What shadows we are and what shadows we pursue." 

Senator Robertson spoke as follows : 

Mr. Peesident : The chair by my side has 
been made vacant by death. The Senator that 
filled it has passed away, and is now, I trust, in 
the full enjoyment of that life which a right life 
here insures. 

Henry R. Low was born in Sullivan county, 
in this State, in 1826. He came of a family some- 
what distinguished and quite patriotic. One an- 
cestor represented that county in the other 
branch of the Legislature. Two others served 



in the American army during the revolution. He 
himself started out in life as a common school 
teacher, the starting point of a large number of 
the great men of this nation. In due time he 
was admitted to the bar and won a few laurels 
in his profession. Twice he was elected judge 
of his native county. At length he became a 
member of the State Senate. This would have 
been his twelfth year of service in this body. 
Here he labored to protect all the great interests 
of the State. He was the champion of the 
farmer and of the laborer. Here he sought to 
relieve real estate of its heavy and unjust 
burdens of taxation. He wanted the laborer to 
receive for his labor such compensation as would 
enalbe him to educate his children, support his 
family and make accessible to them the comforts 
and enjoyments of life. This alone will account 
for his immense popularity in the Orange dis- 
trict. He often took part in debate here ; he 
was a fluent speaker ; he stated his facts with 
great clearness and force and built on them strong 
and convincing arguments. It is a remarkable 
fact that he seldom or never excited the envy 
or jealousy of his political associates ; that he 
seldom or never aroused the wrath of his polit- 
ical opponents. He possessed much more ability 
than the average law-maker ; but his was not 



%n UXcnioxnam. 



a towering intellect. Had he been a great genius 
he would have been less useful to his constitu- 
ents, less useful to the people of the State. He 
was noted for amiability, for gentleness and purity 
of character, for fidelity to the interests in- 
trusted to his care, for devotion to friends, and 
for courteous treatment of all with whom he 
came in contact. He had a laudable ambition, 
and had he lived higher honors would undoubt- 
edly been conferred upon him. 

May we so live, may Providence so guide 
us, that when we shall be called from earth our 
regrets will be as few, our prospects as bright as 
those of our departed associate, whose virtues 
we this night commemorate. 

Senator Cantor spoke as follows : 

Mr. President : I do not propose at this hour 
to indulge in any extended eulogy on the life or 
services of Judge Low. Others have spoken upon 
this floor whose ac(iuaintanceship with him ex- 
tended over a greater period of time than my 
own, and who, perhaps, have a stronger and 
greater familiarity with the eminent services 
which he has rendered to the people of his dis- 
trict and of the State. It was my good fortune, 
as a member of the lower branch of the State 
Legislature, to have witnessed during the past 



J;c9i6latiuc JJrocccdlncjs. 



three years the services which he rendered to 
the people of the State, in this, the upper 
branch. I noticed that while brilliancy was not 
a distinguishing: characteristic of his nature or of 
his mental power, he had that energy, that 
fidelity to trust, that power of application which 
unfortunately, as a combination, is so rare in our 
public servants. 

Mr. President, we differed as a minority from 
the political views expressed and entertained by 
Judge Low. We admired the many manly quali- 
ties of his nature, we appreciated his virtues, 
we recognized his courtesy and frankness upon 
all occasions, when a political contest was injected 
into any measures upon this floor. Widely differ- 
ing from him as we did upon principles involv- 
ing many public enactments, we recognized, 
after all, that so far as he was concerned, he was 
influenced by an honest judgment and a desire 
to perform his public services in accordance 
with what he believed to be the best and truest 
interests of the people of this State. It is for 
that, Mr. President, that the Democratic minority 
upon this floor respect, honor and revere his 
memory to-night. To those virtues which have 
been so eloquently alluded to by others, permit 
me to say, that those were the principles which 
underlay all the public actions which he per- 



Stt Ulcmoriatn. 



formed upon this floor. The principles which 
influenced his conduct, and upon which he based 
his official acts were those, Mr. President, which 
we would have inculcated and imitated by the 
rising generation and the generations that are to 
follow. 

" These will resist the empire of decay 
When time is o'er and worlds have rolled away ; 
Cold in the dust the perished heart may lie, 
But that which warmed it once shall never die." 

Senator Fassett spoke as follows : 

Mr. President : The lateness of the hour ad- 
monishes me, that whatever I may have to say 
should be brief. These testimonials of regard, 
of tender appreciation, of affection and admira- 
tion for our friend, have moved me strongly. 
They are to me as they must be to all who 
knew him, echoes of our own emotions — reflec- 
tions of our knowledge of the man. I can not 
hope to bring to the altar, I do not bring, an 
elaborate and splendid garland, but my own rela- 
tions to Judge Low were such that I feel, at 
this time and under these circumstances, that I 
would be false to myself, did I not bear public 
testimony to the affection and regard in which 1 
held him and hold his memory. It is almost 
startling, Mr. President, to reflect over what a 
span that man's life extended, when measured 



L.ofC. 



ScfiisUttiuc groccctUuQS. 



by man's progress. During his relations to the 
nation and to the State nearly all the great ma- 
terial forces, distinctively modern, have been 
invented, developed and applied. The world has 
experienced its most astonishing: era in the 
rapidity of its material progress, in whatever 
directions these go to make up human life and 
human interest. Judge Low was one of the men 
of a generation that we regret to see is passing 
away, which brought about all these marvelous 
changes in the history of society. Think what 
a chasm separates us to-day in our material, our 
intellectual and our political history, in this 
country alone, from the time when Judge Low 
first entered public life, and yet the creation of 
States, of fortunes, of great cities and marvelous 
enterprises, witnessed in the last sixty years, 
have been all brought about by the devotion, the 
integrity, the enterprise, the industry of just such 
typical Americans as the friend we mourn to- 
night. Men die and their individual memories 
may fade away, but the forces they originate 
during life endure forever and constitute their 
indestructible monuments. It is an ai)palling 
thought to me, Mr. President, and fraught with 
many a lesson, to reflect that every act and 
every deed of a man continues its impulses and 
its influences forever, and that the great book 



%n ^tmoxxmn. 



of account is never and can never be closed 
until heaven and earth have rolled away like a 
scroll. 

Into every fabric of this State and of the 
nation, as has been testified to by those who 
know his personal history well, has been in- 
wrought the fabric of the life of our dead friend. 
He was, as has been said, perhaps not a great 
man. Greatness comes to but few men in the 
history of the world, but he was a valuable man. 
He had about him that which I admire most of 
all ; he was a manly man ; he was a brave and 
fair man ; a man with the courage of his con- 
victions ; a man who knew how to think and 
dared to act ; he was of the men who consti- 
tute the strength of our nation. It is on the 
shoulders of such men that the stability of our 
institutions rest ; it is from the hearts and minds 
and lives of such men, that our great institutions 
have derived their most useful characteristics, 
and derived the guarantee of their solidity and 
perpetuity. That State is richest, Mr. President, 
that has in its treasury the most memories of 
such men as he. Mr. President, that life is not 
successful which is occupied with the accumu- 
lation of wealth, with the acciuisition of power, 
or the social influence, or the mere bestowment 
of great charities. He only is successful who, 



gesiBlatiuc gvocccttin^s. 



by his life in the world, does something to make 
some one somewhat better and happier for 
having lived. Tested by that touchstone we all 
know that the life of our friend was eminently 
successful ; for all the long path of his life has 
been strewn those little unrecorded acts and 
words of love and kindness which endear man 
to his fellows. Measured by that line the life of 
our friend was successful. And yet it happened 
to him to reap as bountifully of the rewards of 
fame as happens to most men. 

Viewed from the standpoint of eternity there 
is not much difference in men's lives. It matters 
not whether a man be cut down at twenty, in 
the flower of youth ; at forty, in the full vigor of 
middle-age, or falls to sleep at sixty. Measured 
from the distance of eternity, that life only is 
long which answers life's great end, and that 
is, by helping to lift the world a little higher 
and leading fellow-men a little nearer to each 
other. 

What more then, Mr. President, could a man 
ask than that it might truthfully be said of him, 
when he has passed away, not that he was a 
great man, but that he lived upon the earth a 
life long and successful. 

The life is more than breath and the quick 
round of blood ; it is a great spirit and a busy 



|n DXcmoviam, 



heart. We count time by heart throbs, not by 
figures on a dial. He lives most who feels the 
most, thinks the noblest and acts the best for 
God and fellow-man. 

Senator Veddek spoke as follows : 

Mr. Pkesident : I am deeply moved by the pro- 
ceedings of this hour. Not often, if ever, have 
more heartfelt, eloquent words fallen from the lips 
of men, and yet, how useless, after all, words are, 
to fully express either a deep love or a great sorrow. 
At such a time as this only the heart can speak, 
and its language are sighs and tears. Those 
flowers on yonder desk are more eloquent than 
human utterances. The vacant chair is the orator 
who speaks to us to-njght. On the 23d day of 
September, 1826, at Fallsburgh, Sullivan county, 
N. Y., Senator Low was born. His early youth 
was passed working on a farm He then read 
law, was in due time admitted to the bar and in 
1856 was elected county judge and surrogate. 
Before the end of his term as judge, he was 
elected to the Senate of this State and served 
three terms during the war period. Born in 
poverty, working on a farm, schooling himself in 
the winter with the earnings of the summer, 
were the splendid preparation and magnificent 
equipment by which he climbed the rugged steps 



I^CQlslatiuc ^\*occcdhi0S. 



which lead to the cloudless heights of fame. 
The pleasing task of tracing instance by instance 
the gathering forces by which his conquests over 
measures and the faith of men were won, is for 
the historian rather than the eulogist, and I will 
speak only of those things which all his asso- 
ciates saw and all his acquaintances knew. As 
a Senator, during the dark days of the war, no 
man from that high ground did more than he 
to keep New York, not only in the orbit, but in 
the van of patriotic States. To his contempo- 
raries he was as a " pillar of cloud by day and a 
pillar of fire by night," by which the good ship 
our Father launched was guided over the sea of 
trouble to the shores of peace. He was not 
supremely great in any one distinguishing char- 
acteristic, but there was such a blending and har- 
mony of every noble faculty that men wondered, 
not so much at any one of his grand traits as they 
marveled at the greatness and completeness of 
them all. He bore his faculties so meek, was 
so clear in his office as Senator, and was so for- 
tressed with truth and right, that all the shafts 
of political criticism fell broken and hurtless at 
his feet. As an orator he was neither vehement 
nor painfully aggressive, but was, after all, singu- 
larly effective. He did not speak often, but when 
he did speak he spoke with the fervor of 



%n ^Xcnioviant. 



honesty, the persuasiveness of knowledge and the 
eloquence of truth. He had the ability of 
patience, the talent of indomitable will and the 
genius of hard work. He loved to labor and he 
knew how to wait. He had ambition, it is true, 
but it was not of the vaulting kind ; he raised 
himself by lifting others. His ambition was to 
lay deep and broad the foundation of States 
upon the corner-stones of liberty, equality and 
justice, to "scatter plenty o'er a smiling land" 
and to read a people's joy in a people's eyes. 
His integrity was as Tineriffe in the ocean, con- 
spicuous and against which the waves of wrong 
dashed and broke. " It was solid as the earth be- 
neath, pure as the stars above." He was heroic 
and yielded to nothing but his conscience. He 
was also gentle ; his manly soul loved the voice 
of the winter's storm and yet his kindly nature 
was responsive to the gentle whispering of a 
calm summer's evening. The horizon of his soul 
was enlarged by the visions he saw from his 
native mountain peaks and his spirit was refined 
by the songs of the morning and the daisies by 
the country roadside. But he has gone ! He 
has traveled the pathway which leads to the 
stars. Grandly as he lived and as nobly and 
without fear he passed through the dark gates 
of death and entered into the endless sunshine 



J^cfjislatluc ^H*occctUufl$. 



of the grave. To his family and neighbors he 
was a favorite flov^er cut down in the garden of 
domestic love. To us he has fallen as a stately 
oak in the stillness of the woods. Able statesman ! 
Beloved citizen ! Admirable man ! Farewell. 

Weed clean his grave, you men of genius, 

For he was your kinsman. 
Strew flowers o'er his tomb, you men of goodness, 

For he was your brother. 

The Pkesident put the question whether the 
Senate would agree to said resolutions and they 
were unanimously adopted by a rising vote. 

Whereupon the Senate adjourned. 



fc(2 



Ju IJXcmoviam. 



CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 



SENATE AND ASSEMBLY. 



STATE OF NEW YOEK: 

In Senate, 

February 6, 1889. 

Senator Coggeshall offered the following : 

Resolved (if the Assembly concur), That there be 
printed for the use of the Senate, by the contractor to 
do the public or legislative printing, under the direc- 
tion of the Clerk of the Senate, five thousand copies 
of the proceedings of the Senate upon the death of 
Hon. Henry R. Low, late Senator from the thirteenth 
district, held February 4, 1889. 

STATE OF NEAV YORK: STATE OF NEW YORK : 

In Senate, ) In Assembly ; 

Ffhrumy 6, 1889. \ Fehrnnry, 7. 1889. * 

The foregoing resolution was duly The foregoing resolution was duly 
passed. concurred in. 

By order of the Senate. By order of the A.ssembly. 

JOHN S. KENYON, CHAS. A. CHICKERING, 

Clerk. Clerk. 



m "'^*' 







^■ 



► 0^: 



f." ^*'% 









AO^ 



.^' 



